The chair in the parking space: A symbol of incivility [Letter]

Severe weather can tell you a lot about people. Sometimes it brings out the good and sometimes the bad. I lived in New Orleans before moving to Baltimore and have been through a hurricane. I grew up in Buffalo, N.Y., and have managed many a snow storm. I've seen neighbors sharing supplies, drinks and friendliness in times of uncertainty.

Mr. Kulick, you are welcome to move back to Buffalo or NOLA if you don't like it here. I don't live in a neighborhood of row houses, so we don't have that issue here. In fact. a heavy snow storm brings neighbors together here, who don't ordinarily get much time to socialize....

The chair in the parking spot represents a self-serving attitude. It misrepresents the reward that our work entitles us to. We shovel a spot (that needed to be shoveled) on a public street and then mistakenly believe we can lay claim to our work.

Yet the reward of shoveling is not an indefinite parking spot but rather the common good we have contributed to. The plows cannot shovel every spot and free every snowed-in car. We must help by sharing the responsibility and not just the benefits.

When I see a chair, it screams to me that people feel that they should not be part of a larger good and contribute to our mutual civic duty.

I have seen people in my neighborhood leave nasty notes on car windows of people who disobey this unspoken "code of the chair" — when, in fact, we should welcome someone else having the opportunity to benefit from work we contributed to our city.

Let's remind ourselves that in an often private world we still have to live together and that we should always try to work toward that.

I found your article "The chair in the parking space: A symbol of incivility" (Feb. 19) ridiculous. Unless we have all moved to mother Russia, this is a capitalistic society where people reap the benefits of their labor. To think that a person can spend hours shoveling out a spot and then be willing...

Unfortunately, not everyone lives in a friendly and honest neighborhood. I have lived in Columbia, Ellicott City, Catonsville, Arbutus and Westminster, and I would never frown upon people who shoveled the snow in their parking space and marked it ("The chair in the parking space: A symbol of incivility,"...

I'm sorry to hear that letter writer David Kulick thinks saving your parking space on the street after a heavy snowfall is a sign of incivility and a lack of commitment to the community ("The chair in the parking space: A symbol of incivility," Feb. 19).

The chair I put in my cleared parking space during the last major snowstorm did not scream I was "uninterested in the public good" but rather of the hard work that went into clearing not only my spot but the three others I helped my neighbors dig out as well ("The chair in the parking space: A...

Not everyone is able to shovel a parking space or clear their own sidewalks ("The chair in the parking space: A symbol of incivility," Feb. 19). I paid $80 to have my sidewalk and parking space cleared. If I leave and come back and don't have a space, do I dare take someone else's?

The best word to describe letter writer David Kulick's argument against people leaving chairs in freshly shoveled parking spaces is "unbelievable" ("The chair in the parking space: A symbol of incivility," Feb. 19).